Shares in the country’s biggest telecom companies got a lift Thursday after a report said U.S. giant Verizon is delaying a rumored buyout of struggling cellphone upstarts, although some call the move a ploy to wrangle better terms for a Canadian expansion.

“The best way to get a better price is usually to stand up and walk away from the table,” said Iain Grant of telecom consultancy the Seaboard Group. He addedthat Verizon could be looking for a reduced price from the Dutch owner of Toronto-area-based Wind Mobile, or even concessions from Ottawa.

Observers also postulated that Verizon’s interest in acquiring Wind and fellow upstart Mobilicity may have cooled after it won a more compelling deal from the incumbents on charges to use their networks for roaming in Canada. A Rogers Wireless spokesperson noted, however, that Verizon operates CDMA technology; “We don’t really roam on each other’s networks.”

Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi said Verizon may have delayed its plans until after Ottawa’s auction of 700MHz airwave spectrum in January so it can gauge the costs of bidding before it commits to any deal.

Telecom consultant Eamon Hoey added that Verizon could decide not to pursue Wind and Mobilicity if it acquires adequate spectrum on its own in the auction, which could allow it to offer services to corporate customers in select markets such as the GTA.

The report late Wednesday in the Globe and Mail said Verizon has decided to delay its decision on the acquisition of Wind and Mobilicity until after the auction and will use results of the proceeding to decide whether there is business case for a Canadian entry.

Citing unnamed sources, the report followed a Globe story in June that said Verizon had tabled an initial $700 million bid for Wind Mobile and was starting talks with Mobilicity.

The unconfirmed report caused a slump in the shares of telecom incumbents BCE, Rogers and Telus and has been followed by a campaign by the incumbents aiming to persuade Ottawa to close “loopholes” they say give Verizon an unfair advantage over the established players.

Ottawa has maintained that its auction rules support a fourth competitor in Canada’s $19 billion wireless market in the interests of consumers and will not be altered. Verizon has remained coy on its plans, saying only that is has considered an investment in Canada among a number of options.

“The new development lessens the odds of Verizon entering Canada; however, it does not eliminate this possibility completely,” Mayer said. “The move suggests hesitancy on Verizon’s part and plants a seed of doubt regarding the case for Canadian entry,” he added.

Wind Mobile CEO and chairman Anthony Lacavera said Verizon’s purported delay and the pending auction add impetus to his long push for a merger of Wind and Mobile, though he said no new talks have been scheduled as yet.

“I’ve had a view literally for four years that new entrants must cooperate and now, before the auction, makes the time opportune. I think it’s certainly possible,” he said, adding that the merger plan had been on hold “pending all of this speculation on Verizon.”

He also said there is limited time to pull off a merger before the mid-September deadline for entities to register to bid in the auction — and possibly for financially distressed Mobilicity.

Lacavera added that Wind could also combine with a deep-pocked partner such as Verizon in bidding under affiliated entity auction rules. “That is a possibility but it’s not in the scope of current discussions,” he said.

“Regardless of ultimate ownership,” Lacavera added, “Wind is here to stay.” He said wireless prices for consumers have come down 18 per cent in the markets in which it operates.

Shares in Bell Mobility parent BCE rose 1.8 per cent in Toronto to $42.53 while Telus rose 4.8 per cent to $32.23 and Rogers Communications, whose wireless unit is seen has the most impacted by any Verizon entry, rose 5.2 per cent to $41.21.

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